While we were out of town, several California countines banned touch screen voting. Jeanne at Body and Soul has a good recap of the issue and news and blog coverage.

Don't miss this new New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh on the sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraid prison:

A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing:

Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

The report says there are photos and videos to back up the claims:

Via Political Wire : former Democratic presidential nomination contender Howard Dean may get his own cable talk show--but not about politics.

Supreme Court Justice David Souter was attacked last night while jogging.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter was assaulted by two men Friday night and taken to a hospital with minor injuries, a court spokeswoman said. The incident occurred while he was jogging about 9 p.m. Friday, said Kathy Arberg, a court spokeswoman. Law enforcement sources told CNN the incident occurred near the Potomac River waterfront in southwest Washington, not far from Souter's home. Arberg said that the motive was not robbery, but law enforcement sources said it appeared to be a random attack.

The attackers were reportedly young men. Why would they randomly attack an adult male jogger at 9:00 pm except to rob him? For kicks? Strange. In any event, our best wishes to Justice Souter for a speedy recovery.

by TChris

TalkLeft has written (here, here, here) about the dangerous theory the government is pursuing in its prosecution of computer scientist Sami Al-Hussayen for providing "material support" to terrorists in the form of his "expert guidance or assistance." In its opening statement, the government argued that Hussayen had helped maintain a website that "could eventually access 20 other sites with ties to radical organizations."

Jacob Sullum sees the problem:

Talk about guilt by association. Given the interconnected nature of the World Wide Web (they don't call it a "web" for nothing), just about any site with hyperlinks "could eventually access" something sinister.

The government wants to hold Hussayen responsible for four fatwas that appeared on a website he helped maintain. Hussayen says that thousands of posts were made to the website and that he didn't agree with the fatwas. Sullum provides a useful summation of the evidence against Hussayen and of the implications of the government's interpretation of the Patriot Act in Hussayen's case.

Speaking of the Patriot Act, Earl Ofari Hutchinson advises John Kerry to stop "treading gingerly" and to become a vocal opponent of its extension. It's good advice.

by TChris

"Out of step" doesn't quite do justice to Justice Scalia's thinking about the Constitution. He's made it clear that he doesn't believe abortion is constitutionally protected, and he likes to complain that there's no constitutional "right to homosexual sodomy." But those are controversial issues, and Justice Scalia seems to thrive on controversy.

More frightening is Justice Scalia's belief that criminal defendants are not entitled to a lawyer unless they can afford to hire one. Sorry Mr. Gideon, you'll have to do the best you can on your own.

by TChris

Owners of licenses to broadcast on the public airwaves are supposed to serve the public interest. The Sinclair stations that censored Nightline did not serve the public interest. It's one thing for Sinclair to slant its news coverage in favor of the Bush administration; preventing viewers from seeing a well-respected news program is another. The first amendment protects expression of opinions; it disfavors suppression of information. The public interest is served by more information, not less.

The FCC tells you to write to your local station if you want to complain about its performance as a custodian of the public airwaves. Stations are supposed to keep your letters and the FCC is supposed to consider them when it decides whether to renew the station's license.

The FCC isn't going to yank Sinclair's license, but people who were denied the opportunity to watch Nightline should force Sinclair to retain a fat file of complaint letters for the FCC's review. The letter sent by Free Press says it all.

by TChris

Swapping a Twinkie for a bologna sandwich has become more burdensome for students in the Sharyland (Texas) School District after a 17 year old shared his marijuana brownies with friends. Vexed school administrators hit upon a fool-proof plan to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again: no more food sharing without the school's permission.

Right.

And on those rare occasions when a student bothers to ask permission, what criteria will the food police apply? Just say no ... to brownies? Baked goods? A banana might seem safe, but what if it's injected with LSD?

by TChris

Sharon "Bad" Luck robbed a bank in Fort Worth, then went to her own bank in Burleson to deposit the stolen funds into her account. Unfortunately for Luck, the dye pack that the Fort Worth teller handed her with the money exploded in her purse as she entered the Burleson bank, leading to her quick capture.

Last week's winner.

by TChris

Supreme Court Justice David Souter was attacked while jogging alone at about 9:00 p.m. yesterday. He was treated for minor injuries and is feeling fine.

Following up on TChris's earlier post on Sinclair Broadcast Group's decision not to air Nightline tonight, we also urge you to read American Progress Report:

Tonight, ABC's "Nightline" will pay tribute to U.S. troops killed in Iraq by airing a 40 minute special – the names of the fallen will be read by anchor Ted Koppel as their photographs appear on screen. But Sinclair Broadcast Group – the country's largest owner of TV stations – will not allow its ABC affiliates to air the show. In a statement, Sinclair claims the special "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." While Sinclair claims it is pre-empting Nightline because it is an attempt to "influence public opinion," the record shows that Sinclair media has repeatedly leveraged its control over the airwaves to manipulate public opinion in favor of President Bush's right-wing agenda.

SINCLAIR REQUIRES JOURNALISTS TO READ PRO-BUSH STATEMENTS: In September 2001, Sinclair Broadcasting required its affiliates to air messages "conveying full support" for the Bush administration. At a Baltimore affiliate, WBFF "officials required news and sports anchors, even a weather forecaster, to read the messages, "which included statements such as "[the station] wants you to know that we stand 100% behind our President." Several WBFF staffers objected on the grounds that reading the statements would "erode their reputations as objective journalists" because it made them appear to be "endorsing specific government actions."

The conservative Democrat, Diane Feinstein, has coupled with uber-right Senator Orrin Hatch to create S. 1735, an ill-advised anti-gang bill which may make it to the floor of Congress for a vote this coming Thursday. We'll be arguing against this bill until then. We urge you to stand up for sane juvenile justice measures and oppose the political pandering and fear-mongering of S. 1735.
Here's why:

Less than 18 months after the Senate passed rational and balanced federal juvenile justice legislation, two Senators have introduced a harsh, punitive new bill that would expand the use of the death penalty and create new, ill-defined crimes.

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced the Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act of 2003 (S. 1735), a measure that includes dangerous provisions that would expand the use of the death penalty to additional crimes and create additional federal "gang" crimes that lack clear definition.

Under this proposed legislation, people could be convicted and sentenced to death for ill-defined illegal "participation" in a "gang," which could be as few as three people. The law’s loose definitions and expansion of the death penalty would increase the probability that people are wrongly convicted and possibly even executed. In addition, prosecutors, not judges, would have discretion to send juveniles into the adult correctional system, and experiment that's been tried with disastrous effects in California and Florida.

The Hatch-Feinstein bill has raised concerns from a wide variety of groups, including the ABA, death penalty and juvenile associations. Read why here. Their leading concerns are (1) the expansion of the federal role of prosecuting juveniles as adults and (2) the unnecessarily broad federalization of street crimes now generally prosecuted at the state level - including several provisions that make
state murder offenses death-eligible under federal law - and a provision (section 105(e)) that eliminates the "intent to cause death or serious bodily harm" requirement of the existing federal carjacking law (18 U.S.C. 2119) - thus making nearly every car theft a federal offense.

Read this letter sent to Hatch and Feinstein by the Children's Defense Fund, the National Urban League, Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and scores of other groups

In an effort to address these and other concerns, Senators Durbin, Feingold, Leahy, and Kennedy have introduced an alternative bill, S.2358, the ANTI-GANG Act. Some of the differences between the two bills are discussed in this section-by-section summary and Senator Kennedy's floor statement.